Chapter 16
“I ’m sure we can–” Paige started, patting Dewey on the back.
“No!” he shouted, shrugging her off. “We can’t do anything. To get Harpy Heat, we’d have to go back into the Harpy village and find their garden and steal some.”
“Okay,” Paige said, with a nod of her head.
Dewey snapped his gaze to her, searching her face. “What do you mean, ‘okay?’”
“I mean, okay. If that’s what we have to do to save your parents, then that’s what we have to do.”
“Are you still sick?” Dewey asked.
“No. I’m not sick or crazy. But we don’t have a choice. We’re going to have to just buck up and get it done. It’s not going to be easy, I get that, but it has to be done.”
“You mean…” Dewey’s eyes welled with tears. “You mean, you’d go into the enemy’s den and steal this to help me?”
“Of course I would, Dewey,” Paige said with a smile and pat on his shoulder. “I’m not going to let your family die. And I think we can do this. Like maybe when they’re all at dinner or something. We’ll find our way back there, steal these pepper things, and save your parents.”
Dewey pressed his lips together and raised a fisted paw in the air. “Right!”
“Uh, hey guys, I hate to break up your superhero moment here, but it may not matter even if we can get the Harpy Heat,” Devon said as he scrolled further down on the recipe.
“Why?” Paige questioned.
“Because we also need Astradium Tricarbogen,” Devon said.
Dewey’s jaw dropped open. “Astral soda?”
Paige scrunched her eyebrows. “What are you saying? Will someone please explain this to me?”
“We need Astradium Tricabogen, commonly known as Astral soda, which…” Dewey paused, wincing.
Devon flicked a hand in the air. “Which to my knowledge only exists in the Astral realm.”
“He’s right.” Dewey’s wings stopped fluttering, and he collapsed to the floor in a heap. “Which means we can’t help them.”
Paige froze, with a scowl on her features. “So, that’s it? We’re just giving up?”
“There’s nothing we can do,” Devon said.
“I’m sure there is. How do we get to the Astral realm? There has to be a way. How did this blogger get the Astral soda?”
Devon shrugged and shook his head. “Maybe he had a stash of it.”
“Bull. I’m calling Ronnie back and asking her to research this. We’ll find a way.”
Paige stretched her arms out to reach the video chat button and toggle it on. “What’s Ronnie’s contact info, Dewey?”
“Who cares,” Dewey said, covering his eyes with his paws. “My parents are dead meat. Done. Finished. Finito.”
“Stop coming up with different words for ‘finished’ and tell me what I need to know.”
Dewey blew out a sigh that fluttered his lips before he said, “Just press recent and use that.”
Paige rolled her eyes as she found the recent call list and pressed Ronnie’s name. The line trilled, and the woman appeared a second later. “Got an update already?”
“We figured out how to unfreeze Dewey’s family and friends, but we need two things. One we know where to find, but the other we need some help with.”
“Shoot,” Ronnie said as she grabbed her pencil.
“Astral soda.”
The expression on Ronnie’s features betrayed her uneasiness about the request. “Okay, let me do a little digging here. What’s the other ingredient you need?”
“Harpy Heat,” Paige answered.
Ronnie’s chin dropped to her chest, and she shot her a glance over her glasses. “Are you kidding?”
“We know where that is. We just need to get it.”
“You found a Harpy village?”
Paige squashed her lips together. “We did. Not by choice.”
Ronnie shifted her gaze to her, flicking up her eyebrows.
“We were kidnapped by a Harpy. But we escaped, and we’re fine. Well, mostly. I had Dragonberry poisoning, but outside of that, we’re fine.”
Ronnie sucked in a breath and fluttered her eyelashes. “Right. Well, okay, here’s the good news. It looks like there’s an entrance to the Astral realm nearly on top of you. I can give you the coordinates if you want to write them down.”
Paige tapped her temple. “I’ll memorize them. The pencils are as big as me.”
“Oh, right. Okay, here goes.” Ronnie rattled off the numbers, and Paige repeated them back.
“Thanks, Ronnie,” she said, with a nod. “We’ll let you know the moment we’ve got this solved.”
“Be careful. Harpies are no one’s friends.”
“We found that out the hard way, so we’ll be extra careful,” Paige promised before signing off.
Dewey pulled his hands away from his face as Ronnie’s face disappeared from the display. “Those coordinates…”
“Yeah?” Paige asked as she brought up the map application.
“Sound familiar,” Dewey finished, finally flying into the air and buzzing toward her.
Paige punched in the values and pressed the button for directions. Her brows furrowed, and she squinted at the screen. “Wait, is that–”
“The cave we were just at,” Devon finished for her.
“There’s no realm entrance there,” Dewey said, with a shake of his head. “I’ve been in that cave hundreds of times, and there’s no realm entrance.”
“Ronnie says different. We’ll have to check it out,” Paige said. “So, what are we going for first? Harpy Heat or the Astral soda?”
“Harpy Heat,” Dewey said as Devon answered, “Astral soda.”
“Okay, try again,” Paige said.
They repeated the same requests. Paige slid her eyes closed and shook her head. “Looks like I’m the tiebreaker.”
“Listen, Paige,” Devon said, “if there’s no realm entrance, there’s no sense endangering our lives to get the Harpy Heat.”
“But if there is a realm opening and we miss our chance to get the Harpy Heat while they’re busy with their dinner, we’re done!” Dewey shouted, throwing his paws in the air.
Paige flicked her gaze between the two of them as she mulled the information over in her head. “Okay, we do Harpy Heat first, then the Astral soda.”
Devon clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“Dewey’s right. We need to take our opportunity with the Harpies before we lose it. Then we can spend as much time as we want searching for this realm entrance.”
“Okay, let’s fill up our water bottles and head out,” Paige said.
“Sure you don’t want any pie before you go?” Dewey asked as he flitted to the kitchen in front of her.
“I’m good, thanks. I’d really not like to throw up another tree.”
“Bush,” Dewey corrected.
“Right. Whatever. Either way, pass. Besides, I’m too worked up to eat. I think I’ll feel better once we get this Harpy Heat.”
“Really?” Dewey asked as he filled a bottle with a trickle from the massive faucet.
“Yeah. One thing down. The most dangerous thing, too. Then we’ll search for the Astral entrance and be done.”
“I’m worried we won’t find it,” Dewey said as he handed her the filled bottle. “I’ve never heard of it in all my years of living here.”
“We’ll find it, Dewey. Knowing my luck, I’ll probably trip over a rock and fall into the darn thing.”
Dewey chuckled at her. “Probably. Well, at least your klutziness can come in handy. Okay, let’s go.”
“I really think we should rethink this,” Devon said as they stepped into the evening’s still warm and sticky heat.
“It’s already decided. Get on board or stay here and wait for us.”
“I’m not leaving you to go off on a dangerous mission on your own, no matter how much I disagree. I was hired to make sure you stay safe, and I’m going to do my job.”
Paige rolled her eyes. “Spare me your macho crap, Devon. If you don’t want to go, stay here and wait for us. Or better yet, go search for the Astral realm. If we split our efforts, we’ll find everything faster.”
“No way. As much as I disagree, we’re a team. We’re in this together,” Devon said, poking a finger toward the ground.
“Whatever,” Paige groaned as they continued forward. “I liked this job better when just the two of us were a team.”
“At least he’s not high anymore,” Dewey said. “Somehow, he was both more and less annoying then.”
“I’m just trying to point out that I have a lot of knowledge and know-how and you two are both on the newer end of this. But sure, don’t listen to what I say.”
“You got us lost in the jungle.”
“You were pressuring me,” Devon shot back.
“Never mind, never mind. This is hardly an experience versus non-experience matter. It’s just a choice. It’s not like your savvy is going to somehow ensure this entire process goes smoothly if we would have only gone to the Astral realm first.”
Devon shoved aside a leaf. “Well, if we can’t find the Astral realm, there’s no sense in almost being killed by Harpies.”
“Just let it go, Devon.”
“Yeah, whatever. Your mom didn’t listen either.”
Paige stopped walking, pinching her eyebrows together. “What did you just say?”
Dewey’s eyes went wide, and he flicked his gaze back and forth between them.
“Nothing, let’s just keep going,” Devon answered, wiping at a bead of sweat.
“No, you said something about my mom, and I want to know what it was.”
Devon whipped around to face her, flinging out his arms. “Why? You don’t believe anything I say anyway.”
“Pretty sure he said your mom didn’t listen either. Which implies…he knew your mom,” Dewey said as he rubbed his chin.
“You said you met my mom. I assumed like once in passing. But you knew her?”
Devon ran a hand through his hair and bobbed his head up and down. “Yeah, I knew your mom. I met her right before she went missing. While she was pregnant with you.”
“Unbelievable. And you’re just telling me this now?”
“You wouldn’t listen before. You didn’t want to hear anything I had to say. What did you want me to do? Tie you to a chair and force you to listen?”
Paige crossed her arms and cocked a hip. “Why not just kidnap me again?”
“You know what, I’m not doing this right now.
It’s hot, and we have other things we should be focused on.
If you want to have a civilized conversation about your mom when this is all over, we’ll do that.
But I’m not going to stand here while you yell at me some more because you don’t like the way I handled things.
” He shoved his way past a large leaf and continued his trek toward the Harpy village.